Virginia Tech and West Virginia set to renew football rivalry

July 03, 2013|By Norm Wood, nwood@dailypress.com | 757-247-4642

With the Virginia Tech-West Virginia football series laying dormant for the past eight years, the Black Diamond Trophy awarded to the most recent winner in the rivalry game has been gathering dust in Tech's Jamerson Athletic Center.

The prize will be up for grabs again beginning in 2021 when the teams resume the rivalry with a home-and-home series. Tech athletic director Jim Weaver said Wednesday that Tech will play Sept. 18, 2021, at West Virginia in Morgantown, W.Va., and the Mountaineers will travel Sept. 24, 2022, to play in Blacksburg against Tech.

West Virginia holds a 28-22-1 advantage against Tech in the history of the rivalry, but Tech won the last meeting. On Oct. 1, 2005, No. 3 Tech won 34-17 against unranked West Virginia in Morgantown.

"Now, we think it's time to bring the game back," Weaver said. "I think 16 years is long enough to go without it. In addition to that, we've got to enhance the strength of our schedule as the situation with the BCS (playoff) unfolds. It just makes sense to play West Virginia, instead of spending a couple hundred thousand bucks going somewhere else. We can play them right in our own backyard."

Though it ended up being an easy victory for Tech, the '05 game was memorable because it featured one of the uglier episodes involving former Tech quarterback Marcus Vick, a Warwick High graduate. He was captured by video cameras making an obscene gesture with his middle finger directed toward West Virginia fans after he ran behind Tech's bench on the sideline at the end of a 16-yard run.

Vick, who completed 15 of 17 passes for 177 yards and two touchdowns to go along with 74 yards rushing and a touchdown in the game, issued an apology the day after the game for making the gesture. His in-game indiscretion was another example of what has long been a heated Tech-West Virginia rivalry.

"The last time we went there, some of our fans got urinated on, some of our fans got hit and were kicked," Weaver said. "That's when we said we're not going to carry on this relationship. We put it on a temporary hold."

The teams first met in 1912, but it became an even more intriguing matchup when they started a relationship as Big East Conference brethren in '91. The teams played every season from 1973-2005, with West Virginia holding a 17-16 series edge during that span, but Tech won six of the last eight meetings.

In '05, Tech was in its second season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, while West Virginia was still a member of the Big East. West Virginia, which like Tech went 7-6 last season, is entering its second season in the Big 12.

The addition of West Virginia further improves what's already an impressive list of future non-conference opponents set to play Tech. This season, Tech will open the slate with an Aug. 31 game in Atlanta against Alabama.